1 Sunday, May 12, 2019— Grace Life School of Theology—From This Generation For Ever Lesson 87 The Two Streams of Bibles Model of Transmission: Its Origins & Accuracy (Gothic Bible) Introduction • In Lesson 85 we studied Dr. Wilbur Pickering’s argument for one stream of transmission existing within the 95% Byzantine majority with “eddies” of aberrant/abnormal transmission existing along the banks of the main stream of transmission. These “eddies” are comprised of MSS that are not only cut off from the mainstream of transmission (ℵ & B) in terms of their readings but they are also cut off from each other. The MSS swirling in the “eddies” of history are so dissimilar from each other in terms of their readings that it is impossible to utilize them in forming a single monolithic archetype to compete with the Byzantine majority. Therefore, the 95% agreement found in the MSS of the Byzantine stream is only mathematically possible if the autographs themselves formed the archetype for the main stream of transmission. • At the end of Lesson 85, I presented my illustration of the Transmission Turnpike for the first time. o Based upon the historical and textual evidence we have considered, if one were to diagram the stream of transmission it would resemble a highway, Transmission Turnpike if you will, stretching from the 1st century to the 21st and beyond into the “ages to come” (Ephesians 2:7). Remaining squarely on the highway, and thereby safely traversing time and history, are the Greek MSS of the Byzantine majority as well as translations, patristic quotations, and lectionaries that are in substantive doctrinal agreement with each other despite not possessing verbatim wording. This mass of textual witnesses preserved and transmitted the pure text of scripture. o In addition, we should expect to find some textual witnesses driving with wheels on both the highway and the shoulder. These witnesses are best viewed as mixed texts in that they contain pure readings as well as corrupted ones to varying degrees. While they may have begun squarely on the highway, they have drifted to the shoulder over time. Therefore, we would expect to find MSS in this category traveling with varying degrees of recklessness i.e., differing amounts of purity and corruption. o Lastly, Bible Believers should expect to encounter “FORDs” or Found On Road Dead MSS littering the ditches of history. These MSS not only disagree with the readings of the majority but they also disagree with each other. These are the left for dead MSS of history that have no evidence of ever having been copied or used by the body of Christ. Their existence in the present is due to their intentional abandonment by the believing church in the past. It is these discarded vehicles (MSS) along the ditches of the Transmission Turnpike that have been revitalized by modern textual critics and foisted upon to the body of Christ as the original text of scripture. • Since teaching Lesson 85 on Sunday, April 28, 2019 I have received feedback on the Transmission Turnpike illustration. In a future Lesson I will present the contents of this feedback in an attempt to fine tune the illustration. • Like Pickering, I now see one main stream of preservation/transmission as having occurred during the dispensation of grace. Along the banks (in Pickering’s “eddies”) or in the ditches (FORDs along my Turnpike) are the remnants of Satan’s attempt to corrupt the word of God Pastor Bryan Ross GRACELIFEBIBLECHURCH.COM 2 during the church age. I have not, however, always seen/understood transmission to have occurred in this manner. • Historically, the King James Only movement has maintained and propagated a very different view of transmission than the one advanced by Pickering. Likewise, I have not always held to a view of transmission like the one put forth in my Transmission Turnpike illustration. Recent studies have caused me to change my mind and search for a more accurate way of explaining how preservation/transmission occurred. I would like to take the next couple Lessons to explain how and why I changed my mind and how it relates to my Transmission Turnpike illustration. • In order to accomplish this task, we must first understand the standard view of transmission that has dominated pro-King James argumentation since the middle of the 20th century. This Lesson is devoted to that purpose and will cover the following points: o The “Two Streams of Bibles” View of Transmission o Historical Origins of the “Two Streams of Bibles” Paradigm o Private Questioning of the “Two Streams of Bibles” Paradigm The “Two Streams of Bibles” View of Transmission • In the past, as recently as the Summer of 2018, I believed that there had been two streams or lines of transmission‒one pure and the other corrupt. This fact is evidenced by the following charts I created in 2011 in preparation for preaching on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. o The Critical Text o The Preserved Text • The notion of “two streams of Bibles” or “two Bible lines” or “two text lines” is very prevalent in pro-King James argumentation and literature. My thinking on this matter had been greatly influenced by arguments found in literature of the King James Only movement. • Please consider the transmissional picture painted by the following charts and diagrams. o Please see Appendix A beginning on page 11 for images of the charts shown on the PowerPoint. • Many of the showcased examples are very complex in terms of their structure and details. All of them agree, however, on the following general points: o There are two streams/lines of Bibles. One emanating from Antioch and the other from Alexandria, Egypt. o One stream/line is pure (the Antiochian) and the other stream/line is corrupt (the Alexandrian). o The MSS of the Byzantine Text-Type are always placed in the pure stream/line. Whereas, the principle witnesses of the so-called Alexandrian Text such as Codex Pastor Bryan Ross GRACELIFEBIBLECHURCH.COM 3 Sinaiticus (ℵ), Codex Vaticanus (B), and Codex Alexandrinus (A) are always placed in the corrupt steam/line. o The Italia (Old Latin), Peshitta, and Gothic translations, among others, are always placed in the pure stream/line, thereby giving the impression that these early translations are in complete agreement with the Textus Receptus (TR) the text of the Reformation and the King James Bible because they are in the same stream/line. o In contrast, Jerome’s Latin Vulgate is always placed in the corrupt stream/line emanating from Alexandria, Egypt and culminating in the various editions of the Critical Text and Modern Versions. o Therefore, these charts depict the Old Latin (Italia), Peshitta, and Gothic translations as “good” Bibles and the Vulgate as “bad.” More specifically, the Old Latin and Vulgate are pitted against each other as rivals in opposing streams/lines. o Lastly, these charts leave their readers with the impression that there is an unbroken line of systematic and sequential corruption stretching back to the earliest centuries of church history in the following reverse order: ▪ Modern Versions—NASV, NIV, NKJV, ESV (20th & 21st Centuries) ▪ UBS/Nestle Aland Greek New Testaments (20th Century) ▪ Revised Version (1881) ▪ W&H Greek New Testament (1881) ▪ Douay Rheims Translation (1582) ▪ Codex Alexandrinus (A)—(5th Century) ▪ Latin Vulgate (382) ▪ Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ) & Codex Vaticanus (B) (330-350 supposedly) ▪ Origen ▪ Papyri ▪ Alexandria, Egypt Historical Origin of the “Two Streams of Bibles” Paradigm • Historically, the notion that transmission occurred in “two streams of Bibles” first appeared in Benjamin G. Wilkinson’s 1930 book Our Authorized Bible Vindicated. As the title suggests, Wilkinson’s book was aimed at defending the Authorized Version and the traditional Greek text (TR) against the incursions being made into the body of Christ by the Critical Text and Modern Versions during the first half of the 20th century. Chapter 1 of Wilkinson’s book titled, “Fundamentally, Only Two Different Bibles” contains a subsection labeled “Fundamentally, There are Only Two Streams of Bibles.” It is here that we find the enunciation of the “two streams of Bibles” paradigm of transmission for the first time. o “The first stream which carried the Received Text in Hebrew and Greek, began with the apostolic churches, and reappearing at intervals down the Christian Era among enlightened believers, was protected by the wisdom and scholarship of the pure church in her different phases; by such as the church at Pella in Palestine where Christians fled, when in 70 A. D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem; by the Syrian Church of Antioch which produced eminent scholarship; by the Italic Church in northern Italy [Italia/Old Latin]; and also at the same time by the Gallic Church in southern France and by the Pastor Bryan Ross GRACELIFEBIBLECHURCH.COM 4 Celtic Church in Great Britain; by the pre-Waldensian, the Waldensian, and the churches of the Reformation. This first stream appears, with very little change, in the Protestant Bibles of many languages, and in English, in that Bible known as the King James Version, the one which has been in use for three hundred years in the English-speaking world. These MSS. have in agreement with them, by far the vast majority of numbers. So vast is this majority that the enemies of the received Text admit that nineteen-twentieths [19/20] and some ninety- nine one-hundredths [99/100] of all Greek MSS. are of this class; while one hundred per cent of the Hebrew MSS. are for the Received Text. The second stream is a small one of a very few manuscripts. These last MSS. are represented: (a) In Greek: —The Vatican MS., or Codex B, in the library at Rome; and the Sinaitic, or Codex Aleph (ℵ), its brother.